


They Don't Burn Like We Do

by onlybylaura



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015), Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: F/M, Hurt, Hurt No Comfort, Mercy Killing, Pain, Save Ben Solo, THIS IS ALL I ASK, This is an AU, bless you, don't do this to me jj honestly, for now, i can't take it i've written this once, i mean the song is even though our love is doomed by garbage, i really hope this does not turn to be true, i will not suffer twice, i'll never get over this otp will i, it's better than this sadness, just run to the mountains, perfect for them, sadness and tears, thank you all for suffering with me, there isn't even comfort in this, which is a perfect reylo song
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-21
Updated: 2018-02-21
Packaged: 2019-03-22 08:00:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,502
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13759728
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/onlybylaura/pseuds/onlybylaura
Summary: Rey and Ben are at the world's end, and they may not be able to save it.





	They Don't Burn Like We Do

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading this! You can find me online on my [ tumblr ](https://www.onlybylaura.tumblr.com) or on twitter as @laurampohl. Honestly, I'm sorry for what is below. I'M IN PAIN TOO.

The world was burning bright around them.

Ben Solo knew it was about to end as he stared at the wreckage of the ship and the bomb that hadn’t been turned off.

There wasn’t much time. There just wasn’t enough time in the world for what he had to say or do. He turned off his lightsaber, facing Rey. The world was about to blow up, and if they didn’t contain the energy in time, the whole universe was going to blow up.

For some reason, he thought he had a chance of winning. Had a chance of living and doing what was right, for once.

Rey stared back at him, tears welling in her eyes.

They were going to die and he knew it.

“We can’t stop it,” she said, her voice trembling. “There isn’t enough time.”

He wanted to reach out for her. To offer words of comfort that could mean something. But in the space they’d left behind, the words would mean nothing. It was the end, and there was nothing they could do.

The energy would blow up into a hundred million pieces, unstoppable. It was the plan all along. There was no one else left to save.

“Ben,” Rey said.

It was the way she said his name. Like it held the breath of the whole world. The fate of the universe, in that single word.

He didn’t want to speak the words that would seal their fate. He knew that the bomb beneath the ship would blow. He knew that there was no stopping it.

This was his chance of saving the world.

“I love you,” he said, and then he jumped, without waiting to hear an answer.

 

#

 

Rey saw him jump before she could stop him.

She reached for the empty air that Ben left behind, and she looked down at the abyss where the energy of the bomb was accumulating. A couple of minutes, and it would detonate.

Then the whole world would be gone. The resistance. Her friends. The galaxy. Jakku. Every single world she knew, gone in a second, and she didn’t know how to stop it.

And she’d lost something she never thought she’d find. She didn’t want to think of his words. She’d blocked them out.

“Ben!” She screamed, hoping he would turn.

But he didn’t.

He faced the abyss of the bomb and the energy, and Rey could feel his mind at peace. That’s when she realized what was happening.

He was absorbing the energy into himself.

He was going to die.

 

#

 

Ben stared at the abyss, and it stared back at him.

He knew he wasn’t going to survive this. Maybe he was never meant to. That’s what paying for everything meant. It meant that he was ready to do what was needed of him. One last act, one last thing to compensate for all the other things he’d done. All the other horrible deeds that still tormented his soul.

He didn’t look back as he started absorbing the energy into himself.

It was the principle of the Force. Finding balance. That amount of energy within the bomb was not balance—it was something that would destroy everything he knew. Wipe out entire systems.

He knew what that meant. He remembered his mother’s tears when she talked of Alderaan. He still remembered.

He could change things.

Ben Solo reached out with the Force, and bid the energy to come to him, so he could absorb it. Here, it was untamed and raw. It would destroy.

Inside him, it would find balance.

So he absorbed it. He took it, as much as he could, molding the energy within himself. He felt his heart ache at the pain, his muscles warring, a scream escaping his throat. He did not let go. He kept reaching out until he had taken all of it away, his hands and torso pulsing with the orange energy, pulsing with the powers to destroy the universe.

The pain was too real to process, too big to account. He couldn’t measure it. He thought he saw someone else, jumping beside him, but he pushed it away. He was the only one who could do it.

It was his destiny.

He was becoming who he was meant to be.

 

#

 

Ben absorbed the rest of the light.

He crumpled to the ground, and Rey didn’t let him fall. She held him in her arms, and for a second, she thought the world was indeed about to end. The light on the bomb was gone. Ben had absorbed it all.

Rey listened, her heart in her mouth, holding back her tears. Holding back her pain inside herself, hoping she wouldn’t choke on it even though it was killing her from the inside.

She listened until she heard a heartbeat.

Then she put his arm over her torso, and she carried him up again, willing him to live. He was going to live. They both would.

 

#

 

“Rey,” he said.

His eyelids fluttered. He couldn’t feel his muscles, but he could feel where his hands touched hers, where her body was supporting his.

Ben’s heart ached.

“Rey, let me go,” he said.

Rey did, and Ben stood. He didn’t know if he was alive or dead. He stared at her. Those brown eyes that meant to much. The person who made his loneliness mean something.

“You’re not alone,” she replied. “It’s going to be fine.”

For a moment, he believed it. He could feel the energy inside him, dying. Almost dormant. He’d saved the world.

He’d saved it.

Not destroyed it.

Ben smiled.

 

#

 

He was weak, but he was going to survive. Rey was going to make sure of it. She looked at him, the small smile he’d just given. It was gone in a second, but Rey could feel her heart bursting out of her ribcages.

She was going to forge a path for them both.

“Rey, I—”

“I know,” she replied. “I know, Ben.”

And then she put her lips to his. They were cold, but warm. She could feel the fire spark within her veins as she touched him, as she finally let go of all the feelings that were holding her back.

As the world was about to end, everything was on fire and doomed, and she was still glued to Ben.

Everything was burning, but nothing burned like they did.

 

#

 

Nothing mattered before that kiss.

He could feel it consuming him, and when he stopped for a breath, he realized it wasn’t just Rey’s lips on his.

Ben was burning from the inside out, the energy inside him that could not be contained.

He held Rey’s arms, and alarm widened her eyes as she realized too what was happening. Ben’s heart slowed down, trying to conquer the energy imprisoned inside him. The energy that could not escape. He was glowing, from inside out.

It was inside his blood and his heart, and he was about to burst.

Ben had to be stopped.

“Rey,” he said, looking into her eyes.

She shook her head, her lips trembling. She guessed where this was going. “No. I won’t do this.”

“It’s your only choice,” he said quietly.

“I won’t do it, Ben.”

He stared back at her. Met the warm brown eyes, with the same tears that he’d known before. But this time, it was different. A different kind of heartbreak. Before, she was devastated because it was his choice.

This time, he had made the right choice, and they still ended up here. Inside a ship, each of them standing on opposite sides.

“Please.”

It was the only word he spoke. He could accept it. He kissed her again, feeling the last taste of her lips. They tasted of salt like her tears, but Ben didn’t mind. He hugged her, putting his arms around her, and just feeling her warmth.

He felt the moment the lightsaber pierced his heart.

Rey trembled against him. He looked up, one last time, and met her eyes. They held tears and heartbreak and so many more things he wished he would know. He didn’t have enough time.

But he knew he had made the right choice.

“Thank you,” he whispered in her ear.

 

#

 

Rey caught him as he fell. Suddenly, the glow of the ship dimmed. The glow around him dimmed, and there was no energy dissipating.

Ben Solo had saved the world, and he had died for it.

She turned off her lightsaber, throwing it into the ground. Her tears were still falling freely, without control.

She gently laid his body on the ground as the rest of the universe was saved. Nothing was going to blow up.

They could live because Ben died.

Rey pushed his hair back from his forehead. He looked peaceful except for the wound, a shadow of a smile crossing his lips. Once in his life, everything was fine. Ben Solo was thankful.

Rey knelt over his body and wept.

Nothing burned as bright as they did.


End file.
